Fiammetta en Turín: qué esperar del nuevo “bar de refuerzo” bajo la Mole Antonelliana

Grill restaurants and yogurt shops, not to mention steakhouses, have aged terribly. These monothematic food service categories are capable of justifying today's sprawl. So much so that the announcement of the opening of "Fiammetta – Brace bar –" is surprising, considering the astuteness of its creators: the same team that, with "Alelaide!", opened exactly a year ago, attracted and retained a significant portion of Turin's clientele eager for contemporary tapas and fine wines.

Starting with partners Leo Pellegrino and Giulia Cantoni, and the co-founder of the aforementioned successful formula, Marianna Di Dio, who for the occasion have secured one of Turin's finest chefs, Niccolò Giugni, now former chef at Razzo. The wine is entrusted to Giuseppe Gallo, also a former sommelier at Razzo, and none other than Condividere. The spaces, at Via Maria Vittoria 33, are the same ones formerly occupied by Luogo Divino, now softened by fabrics and warmed by color.

Fiammetta's menu and prices

Fiammetta knows exactly what it's not—namely, a steakhouse—and will certainly face the challenge of not braising on charcoal, the menu's predominant cooking method. A menu free of standard dishes and guided by six seasonal elements, which in turn are the underlying theme of the dishes and "interpreted with a spit-roasted offering, different every day, to capture their essence."

For the first three months, the chosen products were Santena asparagus, Roman artichoke, red tuna, prawns, Cavour Pollentia black pig, and Fassona Piemontese from “La Granda,” which, even when smoked raw, has its own appeal.

The clear intention is to place vegetables, meat, and fish on equal footing, with the cooking method serving as the unifying factor, sometimes a basic offering, sometimes a more experimental one. Equally clear, at first taste, is the signature of Nicolò Giugni, whose previously demonstrated mastery of raw materials seems like the ideal chef for Fiammetta; he's already on the menu with the "Black pork plin with mustard and wild fennel."

Prices range from €6 to €25. For example, the "squid with fried asparagus and fried egg mayonnaise" is priced at €13, while the "tagliolino with smoked eel, peas, and morels" costs €16. Among the desserts, the freshly churned hay ice cream (€7, for a minimum of two portions), a collaboration with Alberto Marchetti, is sure to be a hit.

Open every day, essentially all day, from 12pm to 3pm and from the 6:30pm aperitif to midnight, Fiammetta offers a lunch option for 20 euros.

Stanis La Rochelle would perhaps say that it's a "very un-Italian" restaurant. Innovative in a recently sedentary Turin scene, it has the good sense to take the risk of being a restaurant, with entire, thoughtful and structured courses, a far cry from the formula based on tapas accompanying wines.